THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA Social Development Sector Implementation Guidelines for Social Development Transfers to Local Government FY 2018/19 PRESENTED TO THE LOCAL GOVERNMENTS September, 2017 Contents Page Page ........................................................................................................................ i 1.0 Background / Introduction ........................................................................... 1 1.1 Background .................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Purpose of the SDS Implementation Guidelines .......................................... 2 1.3 Justification for the Guidelines .................................................................... 2 2.0 National Development Plan and Sector Policy Priorities ............................. 3 2.1 Alignment of the SDSP to the National Development Plan ......................... 4 2.2 Sector Policy Pronouncements .................................................................... 6 2.3 Sector Policy Priorities ................................................................................. 7 3.0 Roles, responsibilities and mandate of Local Governments ........................ 7 3.1 Mandates of the Local Government ............................................................ 8 4.0 Roles of the Stakeholders Social Development Sector transfers ................. 9 5.0 Social Development Sector Activities (Councils) implemented at the Higher Local Government .................................................................................... 10 6.0 Overall Structure and Purpose of transfers and Overall Allocations ......... 12 7.0 Grant Allocation Formula ........................................................................... 13 8.0 Overview of Sharing of the Social Development Sector Grants................. 14 9.0 Overview of Sector Budgeting Principles and Requirements .................... 14 Page -i- 1.0 Background / Introduction 1.1 Background The Social Development Sector (SDS) provides community level activities to reduce poverty and sets up a platform for the National Development Plan. The sector has emphases on the promotion of social protection, equality, equity, human rights, culture, suitable working conditions, employment, and the vulnerable groups such as the women, children, the unemployed youth, Internally Displaced Persons, the Elderly, Older Persons, Persons With Disability, which are often marginalized and excluded from the benefits of economic growth. The Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MGLSD) is the lead agency in the Social Development Sector (SDS). The mandate of the Sector is to mobilise and empower communities to harness their potential while, protecting the rights of vulnerable and marginalised population groups. As the lead central government institution, the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development is responsible for policy formulation; developing guidelines for service delivery; setting standards; providing support supervision; carrying out monitoring and evaluation; capacity building of local governments as well as coordination and research. The Social Development decentralised activities are implemented through collaboration with the Local Governments (LGs), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the communities themselves. At the LGs, the Community Based Services Department is the conduit for service delivery. Some of the decentralised services / activities implemented by LGs using Social Development non-wage recurrent transfers are those related to: (i) Functional Adult Literacy (FAL); (ii) Operations of the Community Based Services Department; (iii) Provision of Special Grant for Persons With Disabilities to enhance their income and reduce unemployment; (iv) Provision of Community Based Rehabilitation initiatives; (v) Provision of Public Libraries related services; (vi) Services for Youth Council; (vii) Services for Women’s Council; (viii) Services for Disability Council; (ix) Services for Older Persons Council; Page -1- (x) Provision of grants for Youth Livelihood improvement and employment creation through the Youth Programmes like Youth Livelihood Programme (YLP); and (xi) Provision of unrestricted credit for women through the Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP) Government came up with a reform and consolidated the transfers to the local government into: (i) Wage transfers; (ii) Non-wage transfers; and (iii) Development transfers. 1.2 Purpose of the SDS Implementation Guidelines The Social Development Sector transfers guidelines to the LGs focus on attaining efficiency and effectiveness in the implementation of planned activities, proper resource utilisation, management, accountability and reporting. Therefore, the main objectives are to; (i) Facilitate Local Governments to implement, monitor and oversee social development activities; (ii) Provide standards for service delivery and quality assurance; (iii) Provide a basis for systematic planning and reporting of sector activities by LGs; (iv) Strengthen collaboration between the Local Governments, the centre and other stake holders; and (v) Promote transparency, accountability and efficient management of finances and other resources in the sector. 1.3 Justification for the Guidelines The Social Development Sector activities are broad and cross cutting. As such, there is likely to be duplication of activities during implementation. It is upon this background that the guidelines will: (i) Outline principles, objectives, roles and practices to be followed in the implementation of the social Development Activities so as to minimize costs; (ii) Enhance the implementation of focused priority outputs; (iii) Minimize the duplication of outputs and activities; (iv) Address/streamline the question of supervision, monitoring and evaluation; (v) Inform stakeholders of the objectives, implementation strategies and structures of the programmes; (vi) Describe the roles / responsibilities of the national machinery responsible for social development issues, government sectors with the mandate to handle social development programmes, local governments and collaborating NGOs; Page -2- cross cutting issues in social development and how they can be handled at various levels, particularly at the LGs (Municipalities and districts); and (vii) Provide general planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting and accountability framework within the local governments. The guidelines will therefore inform stakeholders at the local governments with proper co-ordination, implementation, management and monitoring of programmes and other interventions that are geared towards betterment of the welfare of poor and vulnerable groups such as non-literate adults, women, PWDs, youth, etc. In particular, the guidelines provide information about the Social Development Sector transfers to the Local Government and guides the preparation of Local Government budget estimates for the Social Development Sector. They give details of: (i) National policies for the Sector, (ii) Role and mandate of Local Governments, (iii) An overview of central government transfers to Local Governments, (iv) An explanation of how these transfers are allocated to each Local Government, and (v) Requirements that Local Governments must follow when preparing the budget. The information is accompanied by a more detailed Budget Requirements Assessment and Compliance Tool (BRACT), which should be used by Local Governments to ensure compliance. The central government shall use the BRACT to verify if Local Governments have actually complied. This will inform the signing of performance contracts with Accounting Officers by the Permanent Secretary/ Secretary to the Treasury. 2.0 National Development Plan and Sector Policy Priorities The Social Development Sector provides community level activities to reduce poverty and plays a pivotal role that creates the necessary conducive environment for other sectors to effectively deliver services to all sections of the population. The key role of the sector is to promote the rights of the vulnerable and marginalised groups and catalyse them to appreciate, demand and uptake social services. The overall planning framework is the Social Development Sector Plan (SDSP)1 FY2015/16-2019/20 that directly contributes to the National Development Plan II. The objectives of the Sector Plan are to: 1 SDSP was approved and launched on 2nd February, 2017. Page -3- (i) Promote decent employment opportunities and labour productivity (ii) Enhance effective participation of communities in the development process (iii) Improve resilience and productive capacity of the vulnerable persons for inclusive growth (iv) Improve the capacity of youth to harness their potential and increase self- employment, productivity and competitiveness (v) Promote rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment in the development process (vi) Improve the performance of the SDS institutions (vii) Redress imbalances and promote equal opportunities for all Social Development Sector Plan (SDSP) restates Government’s commitment to achieve growth with equity. The SDSP will facilitate the vulnerable and marginalised groups to harness their potential through skills development, access to start-up capital, mind-set change and building their resilience to shocks. This will enable them to participate in economic ventures and improve their productivity in the key priority sectors as identified in the NDP II. In addition, the SDSP seeks to